The C Street “Family” or, How To Understand Right Wing Hypocrisy
Jeff Sharlet wrote a book called The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, which expands on an article he wrote for Harpers called Jesus Plus Nothing. Sharlet actually had a chance to live with these guys for awhile and has an amazing (and chilling) story to tell about this group that is apparently Ground Zero for Christianists in power or who want to be in power.
Sharlet was on Bill Maher recently — here is the complete interview and it is worth every minute:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr69bhccD-Q[/youtube]
In a recent Salon article, Sharlet describes the group thusly:
If sexual license was all the Family offered the C Street men, however, that would merely be seedy and self-serving. But Family men are more than hypocritical. They’re followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to “advance the Kingdom.” They say they’re working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn’t registered as a lobby — and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.
But it goes further — after telling this group of men (mostly) and women (with at least two Democrats that I count in the current group) that they are “Chosen by God”, they are told that there is nothing that they can do wrong, as long as they were doing it in the service of the work (of gaining power) that they were chosen for. So they are accountable to no one — not even the people who vote them into power in the first place. This explains alot about the wide and deep strain of GOP hypocrisy (Christianists mostly) — they can say and do anything they need to in the service of power, but being accountable for actions or what they say never has to be part of the calculus. It would explain how David Vitter could get away with visiting prostitutes and keep his job while Eliot Spitzer is working his way out of his own disgrace. It would explain how a group of people who badly want to have the 10 Commandments posted damn near everywhere don’t mind relying on routine lying and character assassination to achieve heir ends. Apparently the ends are more important than living by the Commandments.
Tags: Republican Hypocrisy
I hope the numerous scandals from the boys of Cheat Street will be enough to loosen their grip on power.
cass–I think this guy has sealed his fate with the bi-partisan participation, and has just become our very own Solzghenitzen(sp). Hope his underground is in place.
This guy has been on Rachel Maddow for about two weeks. They believe God put them in power, therefore they can murder, commit adultry and do damned near anything they want and use “Jesus” to make their case. Talk about wing nuts, this bunch should be frogmarched out of Washington, DC. Wonder if Mike Castle or Tom Carper ever went to pray with these non-Christian. They use Hitler and Mao to make their points. They were most interested in Mao’s “little red book”, you dont follow the rules in the book, you go to prison or re education camps.
Do we really have a consitutional government? A democracy or are we been led like sheep to slaughter by those in power regardless of party?
New YouTube Video out about Anthrax…no Bin Laden didnt do it. It was done in a lab and is now a militarized bio logical weapon. Swine Flue vaccine anyone?
I posted about this a couple of weeks ago; here’s the link to the Rachel Maddow interview that was the first I saw of it
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/29528
I’ve written about them as well. They seem to believe that morality is a secular concept, and that it applies only to the “regular” people. They are not so much immoral as they are above morality. Anything they do is OK, as long as it is in service of setting up the Kingdom. The scary part is that they are not confining themselves to the US — they actually send their members on foreign diplomatic missions, often paid for by US taxpayers.
Hello Scott P! Welcome to Delaware Liberal, and we’ll add your blog to our blog roll shortly.
Here is Scott’s take on the C Streeters. And his take on how they see morality is spot on.
shorta Steve Newton
“reedz my blog. Look at me I’m Mike Protack. Iz b smart en my posts r longa den anyding u will eva wantz to reed”
U all shuld charge dat dude advertisng all da pluggin he doez.
ok, wazn’t shorta Steve, but den again nothing steve doez is short eitha
Bought the book last week and just started reading it. Great read…hard to find locally. It’s unbelievable stuff! Evidence that truth trumps fiction…you can’t make this stuff up!